Adrian College professor Stephanie Jass, pictured here with "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek, ended her run on the show's Tournament of Champions on Thursday, Feb. 21. Jass will chat live with MLive readers about her experience at 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25.Courtesy of Jeopardy Productions Inc.

ADRIAN, MI – She gave it a good run, but Stephanie Jass won’t be the winner of the “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions.

In her semifinal match on the TV quiz show on Thursday, Feb. 21, the 42-year-old Adrian College associate professor of American history lost to Colby Burnett, a high school world history teacher from Chicago.

“Colby is a killer,” said Jass, of Milan. “When I saw I was playing against him, I said I’m done. I knew I could never beat him. He’s a super, super smart guy and so fast. He deserved to win.”

Jass also bantered with “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek about joking comments she made while on the show in October about him “being the Devil” for trying to get her to bet all in a true Daily Double. Jass even said she had a pitchfork for Trebek, “in case he didn’t have one already.”

For her performance in the tournament, Jass takes home $10,000 to add to her $147,570 winnings from the fall. She’s used the cash thus far to pay off some debt, but is still planning a trip with husband Doug Baker, a Jackson native who teaches at Jackson Community College, to either Paris or Machu Picchu.

Jass trailed both Burnett and Dan McShane of West Islip, N.Y. throughout the game. But Jass thought she may have had a chance to pull off a win in the Final Jeopardy category of Russian history.

The answer was, “Launched Oct. 1, 1928, it was brought to a premature end in 1932 amid growing hunger.” Jass responded with Stalin’s Modernization Program, which, on the show, was immediately called wrong.

What viewers didn’t see was that during taping, judges called a “time out” on Jass’ answer to check to see if it might not be right.

“I totally punted the answer,” Jass said. “When they started discussing my answer, I started thinking, maybe I was OK. But I never really expected it to be right.”

Burnett’s response of Stalin’s five-year plan was correct.

“I had a whole lot of fun and got to play with a great group of people,” Jass said.

The “play” continued after the taping of the tournament was complete when a group went out to a bar for a rousing game of trivia, said Jass, who earned her doctorate in American history from Western Michigan University while living in Kalamazoo from 1994 to 2005 and performed with the Kalamazoo Singers and at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre.

Join in a live chat with Jass at 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25 on MLive to find out more about her experience in the Tournament of Champions. Jass loves to share behind-the-scenes stories, so get your questions ready.